Citators in United States

Practical Information

Note: Some of this information was last updated in 1982

Significance

A citator is a book, or set of volumes, that allows you to determine the history of a case and to evaluate the strength of its holdings. In a judicial system that relies heavily upon precedent (principles that were established in previous cases) it is important to be able to trace the establishment of a judicially derived point of the federal tax law. Citators can be used to determine the history of a judicial decision and how that decision has been criticized, approved, or otherwise commented upon in other court decisions. See shepard’s citations (in U.S. law); federal tax citator (in U.S. law).

Tax Citators

Citation information is available for revenue rulings, revenue procedures, and certain other administrative pronouncements. The Citators most frequently used are Research Institute of America’s (RIA) “Federal Tax Citator,” which comes in a multi-volume set; and Commerce Clearing House’s (CCH) two volume set.

The Commerce Clearing House citator is part of the annotated tax service, the Standard Federal Tax Reports. The main citator is contained in two volumes, Citator Volume A – M and Citator Volume N – Z. The main citator table is supplemented by the current citator table, an update service that is issued quarterly and is placed in front of the main table. The two tables refer to all of the federal income tax decisions that have been issued since 1913; federal estate and gift tax cases are cited in a separate volume. Certain court decisions that are no longer applicable, because of a change in the underlying statute, are included in the listing; however, such cases are indicated by a dagger symbol, and no citating cases are listed.

(Revised by Ann De Vries)

What is Citators?

For a meaning of it, read Citators in the Legal Dictionary here. Browse and search more U.S. and international free legal definitions and legal terms related to Citators.

Citators in the Context of Law Research

The Thurgood Marshall School of Law Library defined briefly Citators as: A set of books and online sources that provide the subsequent judicial history and interpretation of reported cases or list of cases and legislative enactments construing, applying, or affecting statutes. In America, the most widely used citators are Shepard’s Citations and KeyCite.Legal research resources, including Citators, help to identify the law that governs an activity and to find materials that explain that law.